Robert W O'Rourke
William J Fry Professor of Surgery
Professor of Surgery
[email protected]

Available to mentor

Robert W O'Rourke
Professor
  • About
  • Center Memberships
  • Research Overview
  • Recent Publications
  • About

    Robert W. O'Rourke, MD serves as the William J. Fry Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology. He obtained his MD from the UCLA Medical School in Los Angeles, CA, completed general surgery residency training at UCSF in San Francisco, CA, and completed an Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship at Legacy Health Systems in Portland, OR. He spent ten years as faculty member and Co-Director of the Bariatric Surgery Program in the Department of Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2013.

    Dr. O’Rourke has dedicated his clinical and scientific career to the care of patients with obesity and metabolic disease. He manages an NIH-funded research laboratory that studies molecular and cellular mechanisms of adipose tissue dysfunction that contribute to the pathogenesis of metabolic disease. The O'Rourke lab focuses on the role of the extracellular matrix in regulating adipocyte metabolic dysfunction in the context of diabetes, macrophage and NK cell contributions to adipose tissue inflammation and metabolism, and mechanistic links between adipose tissue dysfunction and cancer in the context of obesity. The overarching goal of this work is to develop novel cellular and molecular adipose tissue-based therapies for diabetes, dyslipidemia, cancer, and other metabolic diseases.

    Dr. O'Rourke currently holds clinical appointments at the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Hospital. He has served as Chief of General Surgery and Director of the Bariatric Surgery Program at the Ann Arbor VA since 2018. His primary clinical focus is minimally invasive and bariatric surgery. He is active in resident and medical student education and serves as an active member of multiple national surgical societies and on the editorial boards of the journals Obesity Surgery and SOARD.

    Center Memberships
    • Center Member
      Caswell Diabetes Institute
    Research Overview

    Molecular and cellular mechanisms of adipose tissue dysfunction in the context of diabetes
    Extracellular matrix-adipocyte metabolic crosstalk
    Adipocyte-cancer crosstalk

    Recent Publications See All Publications
    • Journal Article
      Gut-muscle communication links FGF19 levels to the loss of lean muscle mass following rapid weight loss.
      Wean J, Baranwal S, Miller N, Shin JH, O'Rourke RW, Burant CF, Seeley RJ, Rothberg AE, Bozadjieva-Kramer N. Diabetes Metab, 2024 Sep; 50 (5): 101570 DOI:10.1016/j.diabet.2024.101570
      PMID: 39134173
    • Journal Article
      Adipose METTL14-Elicited N6 -Methyladenosine Promotes Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and NAFLD Through Suppressing β Adrenergic Signaling and Lipolysis.
      Kang Q, Zhu X, Ren D, Ky A, MacDougald OA, O'Rourke RW, Rui L. Adv Sci (Weinh), 2023 Oct; 10 (28): e2301645 DOI:10.1002/advs.202301645
      PMID: 37526326
    • Journal Article
      Matrix density regulates adipocyte phenotype.
      Ky A, McCoy AJ, Flesher CG, Friend NE, Li J, Akinleye K, Patsalis C, Lumeng CN, Putnam AJ, O'Rourke RW. Adipocyte, 2023 Dec; 12 (1): 2268261 DOI:10.1080/21623945.2023.2268261
      PMID: 37815174
    • Preprint
      Single-nuclei Transcriptome of Human AT Reveals Metabolically Distinct Depot-Specific Adipose Progenitor Subpopulations
      Strieder-Barboza C, Flesher CG, Geletka LM, Delproposto JB, Eichler T, Akinleye O, Ky A, Ehlers AP, O’Rourke RW, Lumeng CN. bioRxiv, DOI:10.1101/2022.06.29.496888
    • Journal Article
      Human CD206+ macrophages associate with diabetes and adipose tissue lymphoid clusters.
      Muir LA, Cho KW, Geletka LM, Baker NA, Flesher CG, Ehlers AP, Kaciroti N, Lindsly S, Ronquist S, Rajapakse I, O'Rourke RW, Lumeng CN. JCI Insight, 2022 Feb 8; 7 (3): DOI:10.1172/jci.insight.146563
      PMID: 34990410
    • Journal Article
      Lumican modulates adipocyte function in obesity-associated type 2 diabetes.
      Strieder-Barboza C, Flesher CG, Geletka LM, Eichler T, Akinleye O, Ky A, Ehlers AP, Lumeng CN, O'Rourke RW. Adipocyte, 2022 Dec; 11 (1): 665 - 675. DOI:10.1080/21623945.2022.2154112
      PMID: 36457256
    • Journal Article
      The human type 2 diabetes-specific visceral adipose tissue proteome and transcriptome in obesity.
      Carruthers NJ, Strieder-Barboza C, Caruso JA, Flesher CG, Baker NA, Kerk SA, Ky A, Ehlers AP, Varban OA, Lyssiotis CA, Lumeng CN, Stemmer PM, O'Rourke RW. Sci Rep, 2021 Aug 30; 11 (1): 17394 DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-96995-0
      PMID: 34462518
    • Journal Article
      Postbariatric hypoglycemia: symptom patterns and associated risk factors in the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery study.
      Fischer LE, Wolfe BM, Fino N, Elman MR, Flum DR, Mitchell JE, Pomp A, Pories WJ, Purnell JQ, Patti M-E, LABS Investigators . Surg Obes Relat Dis, 2021 Oct; 17 (10): 1787 - 1798. DOI:10.1016/j.soard.2021.04.021
      PMID: 34294589